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Edited and Published by Robert W. McDowell
April 13, 2023 Issue |
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A FREE Weekly E-mail Newsletter Covering Theater, Dance, Music, and Film in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill/Carrboro Area of North Carolina Since April 2001. |
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PART 5A: TRIANGLE CONCERT REVIEW BY JOEL HAAS |
Yamato: The Drummers of Japan Delivered a
High-Energy Performance Last Night at Duke
Duke Performances presented Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in Hinotori: The Wings of Phoenix on April 6th in Page AuditoriumWhen New Year's rolls around again, add to your resolutions to buy tickets to see the Yamato: The Drummers of Japan, who performed Hinotori: The Wings of Phoenix last night in Duke University's Page Auditorium as part of the university's Duke Performances series. You won't regret it. It's an understatement to say this is a high-energy performance.
This troupe of five men and three women do far more than just beat out amazingly complex rhythms on a variety of drums. These people are top-notch athletes, multi-instrument musicians, and dancers as tightly and intricately choreographed as any Balanchine ballet. On top of which, they are terrific comic mimes.
Yamato deserves a much wider audience than a single night at Page Auditorium on Duke University's West Campus offers. Their costumes are modern, with a definite Japanese design motif; and yet they are ideal for the vigorous, (and I do mean vigorous!) dances and drumming stretched over a 2½-hour show.
Duke Performances presented Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in Hinotori: The Wings of Phoenix on April 6th in Page AuditoriumTaiko means drum in Japanese; however, in modern times, it refers -- outside the country -- to vigorous ensemble drumming developed in the early 1950s. A number of taiko groups have developed around the world since then -- numbers range from 5,000 to a more realistic 800.
This reviewer saw a Taiwanese group in 2005, while visiting that island which, like the Yamato drummers, is composed of men and women devote their lives to constant training, with everything from weightlifting to running and strict diet making such a high level of dance and drumming possible.
Drums range in size from almost five feet across to metal-topped drums smaller than a snare drum but with a similar sound. Rhythmic instruments are not confined to drums. Small handheld cymbals -- and just beating wooden sticks together -- are also worked into the performance.
Duke Performances presented Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in Hinotori: The Wings of Phoenix on April 6th in Page AuditoriumSome of the numbers incorporate traditional Japanese wind and plucked instruments, including slender Japanese flutes and what the Chinese call a guzheng (I do not know the Japanese word) -- a large plucked instrument, resembling a huge dulcimer and sounding much like a harpsichord. Another number used a string instrument similar to the banjo in sound and general shape, but with a square body and only three strings.
A number of Yamato concerts and performances are posted on YouTube (for a sample, click here) as well as concerts from other taiko groups. Click here to find the rest of Yamato's 2023 U.S. tour dates.
Duke Performances presented Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in Hinotori: The Wings of Phoenix on April 6th in Page AuditoriumYamato: The Drummers of Japan in HINOTORI: THE WINGS OF PHOENIX (In Person April 6th) (Duke Performances in Page Auditorium on Duke University's West Campus in Durham). YAMATO TRAILERS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqRvwrXwrCw&t=1s and https://youtu.be/X35NEKkWtNo. MORE YAMATO VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/@YAMATOTHEDRUMMERS. THE PRESENTER: https://dukeperformances.duke.edu, https://www.facebook.com/dukeperformances/, https://www.instagram.com/dukeperformances, https://twitter.com/dukeperformance, and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXF-Yaqa_OybZFHVn07LrxQ. 2023 SEASON: https://dukeperformances.duke.edu/calendar/. BLOG: https://dukeperformances.duke.edu/blog/. YAMATO: THE DRUMMERS OF JAPAN (taiko drummers group, founded in 1993 in Japan's Nara Prefecture): http://www.yamatodrummers.com/, https://www.facebook.com/YamatoTheDrummersOfJapan, https://www.instagram.com/yamato_drummers/?hl=en, https://twitter.com/Yamato_Drummers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadaiko_Yamato, and https://www.youtube.com/@YAMATOTHEDRUMMERS. INFORMATION: 919-660-3356 or performances@duke.edu. PLEASE DONATE TO: Duke Performances. [RUN HAS CONCLUDED.]
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Joel Haas first acted in Raleigh Little Theatre's 1968 production of What Price Glory. Then in 1973 he was in several Theatre in the Park productions, including Cyrano, in which he played Le Bret. It wasn't until 1990 that he appeared on stage again, this time as a homeless veteran named Lou in The Speed of Darkness. Haas' mother, Douglas Haas Bennett (1927-2018), was a professional theater costumer, the first full-time costumer that RLT hired. She later founded her own theater supply company, Raleigh Creative Costumes, in 1975. Between 1981 and 2021, Joel Haas worked as a freelance steel and general materials sculptor in the Triangle. Since 2020, he has been writing magazine articles and a blog called Our War with Paraguay and How to Sit in a Hoopskirt: The U.S. Between 1848 and 1868 as Told by the Newspapers of the Time. (And, yes, the United States almost went to war with Paraguay in 1858.) Click here to read Joel Haas' reviews for Triangle Review. |
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